ICO Exit scams have stolen more than 100M USD

[hmil]

You may want to read this:

Unpacking the 5 Biggest Cryptocurrency Scams

Cryptocurrencies have revolutionized the way the world looks at transactions - but they’ve also facilitated some monumental scams over the past nine years.

The success of Bitcoin and a number of altcoins jumpstarted an industry that is incorporating Blockchain technology in a number of innovative ways.

While the smartest minds have created some game-changing companies backed by the power of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, nefarious minds have also jumped on the bandwagon, fleecing unwitting investors in elaborate scams.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/unpacking-the-5-biggest-cryptocurrency-scams

So I still don't know why people are still willing to invest their hard earn money to ICO's. Of course not all ICO are scams but you need to use your common sense and not fall for this kind of trap. Good thing though is that this forum has help unravel a lot of scam ICO from the beginning. You just have to visit the Scam Accusations thread: (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0) before making decisions to invest in any ICO.

  The market needs to be regulated, monitored because a lot of the scam projects are covered by crypto currency. I chose a very good project for myself.
I also advise you to pay attention to the company's ICO MPCX is a digital block-driven financial services platform. Our long
term aim is to aggregate all the crypto financial services into one place. MPCX
is designed to serve entities' and individual's needs in the areas of digital
wealth management, cryptocurrency exchange and trading, digital banking,
crypto research and ICO promotion, and crypto lending.
A great opportunity for investors to invest in a new project. This project has a very strong team. I am sure that the whole world will soon find out about this!

[Cryptosuperb]

They don't even have to use exit scam and disappear. Most of them just put on their wp "decentralised, private, fast etc" and on the roadmap dates of listing on exchange and thats it. And they collect a lot of money, pay some to be listed on some cheap low vol exchange and they can leave project, and its legal and investors are holding bags of dead coins!

[BabatundeM]

I am sure this set of people has cause a great havoc to a lot of people in the crypto community and the actual amount they have scooped from people might even be more than this. This is an awaking call to everyone that adequate research is important before going into any project.

[Pamela1966]

I hope there could be a regulations to curb scam ICOs but I'm afraid it'll be impossible because of the anonymity of the whole concept of crypto, some people can just come together come up with something or just copy other project's idea and start ICO without the intention of implementing anything, raise money and run with it thereby turning to shitcoin, I just participate in hashrental which is a big exit scam

[chocopapaya]

Be very skeptical of any person who speaks in extremes.
for example, if someone predicts that this year is the end of the ICO, that is just ridiculous and extreme.
The reality of all open and free markets is that it is not zero sum, meaning, it is not just winners and losers.
Gains and losses happen in many different ways and it is very complicated.
Supply and demand fluctuate and the way assets are traded changes also.

So the more realistic thing, is that the current ICO boom will slow down and startups will begin running ICOs in different ways rather than ICOs disappearing all together.
One thing I have noticed already, is that startups are getting more realistic and have started setting hardcaps lower.
Also, I am gradually seeing icos with more products ready instead of just a whitepaper.

And, of course, investors too have wisened up and have stopped throwing money at shit projects.

[HarryBrace]

Scams are only for fooling you and getting some money from you. We should always be cautious when investing to check whether it is a scam or legit. Then we can reduce this sort of amount.

[CryptoBry]

The cryptocurrency industry must be doing something to counteract all of these scams otherwise people will soon be not trusting any project introduced via the ICO platform as they can conclude that any project can be another scam and should be avoided. And I think the lethargic situation on the market right now can be attributed to this factor...investors have already stopped supporting many projects because they are afraid of losing their money to frauds. And we have to remember that majority of investors here are ordinary guys who have not been exposed to  the world of investing and so they can easily fall prey to scams.

[Heartland76]

ICO scam projects are increasing rapidly as a result many investor losing their interest with ICO project.

[wuvdoll]

Honestly I was expecting a lot more. What constitutes as "stealing" on this scenario ? Is it just the coins that created an ICO and blatantly just took the money left ?

Because, I know couple of coins that have been doing the "look like professional real company" route and still just worthless and horrible coins and still not considered "stealing" because they are not out there saying they took your money and left. The only difference between companies that really stole your money from ICO and the ones who basically stole but never admitted is that one is searched by the law departments and the other is considered a bad investment.

[RobotNIK]

It's unfortunate to observe such figures considering that he himself led one of these bounties and did not receive his tokens!

[george_hured]

Really very big money was collected last year, as well as this year and if we look at the fact that today there are opportunities not to choose projects that would simply attract us with pictures, we have become much smarter than we were before.

[kulsuma]

Scammers are making investors frustrating. Being an investor, it is ones duty to find out on where they are putting their money. They shouldn’t be tempted by only seeing the profit they promise to return.